Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Anyone know the squad?

The Mekong BIDC Cup (aka MRYUIFTBIDC Cup) begins this coming Saturday - with Cambodia meeting Laos at 4pm at Olympic Stadium - and the Cambodian national team squad has yet to be publicly announced. Not sure why it's being left to the last minute. Maybe none of the footy journo's have yet asked the South Korean coach Lee Tae-Hoon for the names. The squad, which will most likely be a 21 or 22-man group, have not been helped by a moto crash involving three of the players, the result of which is striker Sophal Udom will be unavailable for the tournament with a foot injury. The other two players on the moto, Sok Pheng and Samuth Dalin, should be okay to join the squad. All I know for certain is that two Phnom Penh Crown players, defender Sok Sovan and striker Sok Pheng have been called up. I await the rest of the squad listing with interest. Though it's a warm-up for next month's SEA Games, which is played at U-23 level, the BIDC Cup is aimed at the U-21 age group, and more confusingly, at least two of the countries involved are sending their U-19 squads. The draw for the SEA Games football competition has just been made and Cambodia have been handed the toughest group possible. The draw for Group B of the competition has paired them with Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore and Philippines. In the 2009 SEA Games, Vietnam were the beaten finalists (losing 1-0 to Malaysia) whilst Singapore finished third. Cambodia beat Timor Leste (4-1) in the 2009 version but lost to Thailand (4-0), Malaysia (4-0) and Vietnam (6-1). Postscript; I've just been informed that this SEA Games draw isn't official, so ignore it for the time being.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

OK thanks Andy - Cambodia plays Laos at 4pm Saturday - but when are the other games to be played. The FFC has an incomprehensible website and I can't find anything on the internet! Please help!

Andy Brouwer said...

The BIDC Cup schedule is as follows:
8 Oct. 4pm CAM V Laos; 6pm Vietnam v China.
10 Oct. 3.30pm Laos v Myanmar; 5.30pm China v Thailand.
12 Oct. 3.30pm Thailand v Vietnam; 5.30pm CAM v Myanmar.
14 Oct. Semi-Finals at 3.30pm and 5.30pm.
16 Oct. Final at 4pm.

jonny said...

Who are playing with U23 team ? Only Laos and Cambodia ?